Hi.
I am new to texturing. Modeling not so much.
Please i really need some hard critisism and advise on how to improve the texture.
The link --> will zoom the picture a little more.
http://img709.imageshack.us/img709/9362/testxq.png
http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/8675/test4t.png
http://img709.imageshack.us/img709/9362/testxq.png (http://img709.imageshack.us/i/testxq.png/)

Thank you for your time.

Pentagramma

05-07-2010, 02:41 PM

Hi there,

Overall, itīs looking good. But right now, I feel the textures are a bit lacking, and a little too much on the soft side.

Try and find some good references on animal skin. You could add some pattern to the skin, like a tigerīs, or iguanaīs. Or even the skin pattern of a fish, or a shark - the beauty on creating an animal nobody ever saw is the freedom we can have with it, IMHO .

Have fun, and good work.

leigh

05-07-2010, 06:56 PM

Howzit Groen. This isn't a bad start, but you're going to have to work on it quite a lot more. I'd recommend you start by getting some really good references of crocodiles, lizards, elephants and rhinos. Komodo dragons would also be a useful reference, especially for colour references. If you don't have a membership over at 3d.sk, I'd recommend you consider investing in one - it's not expensive and it provides loads of relatively high res, detailed photographic reference.

Your texture here looks handpainted, and I'm assuming it is. If you're after realism, then handpainting isn't the best idea - you need to use photos. Sure, some handpainting may be needed here and there, but strive to make the majority photographic. Of course, photos require some prep before they can be used for textures, in that you need to remove the lighting and shadows, but the results are worth it.

Use lizard and crocodile (especially croc head) photos for the scales. These will provide you not only with the shapes of the scales, but also all the subtle colour details that a reptile's skin should have. Vary the size of the bumps along his back and down his toes a bit - having very consistent sizing like you currently have looks a little unnatural, you need to add variation. Rhino and elephant skin will be useful for more wrinkly areas.

Pentagramma's suggestion of tiger style patterns is a good idea too. Adding some markings on top of all the scales can look really cool.

I've done a two minute paintover of your render to suggest a possible direction to move towards.

http://www.leighvanderbyl.com/paintovers/dino.jpg

Groen

05-11-2010, 01:01 PM

Thanks. I like those suggestions of the tiger stripes.
The paint over looks good, the color is more appealing to my eyes. Will get some reference to use, as your observation was correct that it was all hand painted.

stuh505

05-11-2010, 09:02 PM

In the model you have already modeled in the physical shape of the scales. It seems to me that this would preclude the use of natural images for the texture because the scales in a texture wouldn't match up with the obvious scales of your model already. I'm actually kind of curious what the "official" approach to this sort of issue would be in a production pipeline.

As for the texture itself it looks as though you have diffuse map only. As a general rule of thumb you should always have diffuse + spec + normal bump maps at a minimum. Overall it needs to be more specular and less diffuse in the material.

Although we don't know what colors dinosaurs were I feel like a good direction would be to try to make it look like it would be camouflaged with its natural environment. So, maybe give it some greenish hues more like a chameleon.

Groen

05-12-2010, 06:48 AM

Hi.
Its a good question how it works in a production pipeline. If i cannot get around this, its very quick to delete the scales and do a diffuse first, and then re-sculpt.
There is only a diffuse and a bump, the scales are bumps, will work on a spec map once the diffuse looks better.
I still like Leigh's color scheme better.

What do you people think? If its not looking like it might work hand painted, then im going to delete the sculpt details and start using photo's for texture and then sculpt over that. Basicly delete the texture as is and start from scratch. Let me know.
Thx
PS. Its enviroment will be a desert.

In a production environment, concept work would have been done before any modelling. As such, the artists would already know how the skin would look, and once the modelling was done, it'd be handed over to a texture artist to start on the textures while simultaneously going into sculpting for wrinkles and such. After the textures are done, another sculpting pass would be done to add the details from the texture map into the sculpt as well.

At least, that's most likely how we'd deal with it here at work. Other studios may well have different workflows, but this one works for us. When a creature has skin that needs a lot of displaced details like scales, then that pass will be done after the textures are done. Doing it the other way around would result in more work, and therefore more money and time. In light of this, I'd recommend:

If i cannot get around this, its very quick to delete the scales and do a diffuse first, and then re-sculpt.

Do that.

I think your stripes are a little too thick. It kinda makes the dinosaur look small and a bit cartoony. I'd definitely recommend again that you reapproach the texturing from a photographic base.

Groen

05-12-2010, 12:18 PM

Hi.
Ok i will delete the sculpt and textures and start that process over.
Thanks for some insight in the pipeline used by some studios. Really helps and makes sense to save time.

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